Saturday, June 29, 2013

Thursday to Saturday - end of week 4!

It's just five lock
miles from Alrewas to Fradley Junction, where the Trent & Mersey Canal meets the Coventry Canal, and we arrived there in around an
hour, used the facilities there, and moored up across from the BW
Information Centre, shop and cafe.

It was then that Grace noticed
that the batteries weren't being charged. I checked, and found the
drive belt to the alternator, generator and engine water pump to be
all but broken. The engine was too hot for me to attempt a replacement, so
we went across to the café for lunch.

Back at the boat later,
I rolled up my sleeves and got down to replacing the belt. We have
spare belts of all sizes, so it all seemed very straightforward.
However, when I couldn't even loosen the bolts on the alternator –
yes, I did have the right size of spanner! - I had to admit defeat. I
called River Canal Rescue. After about half an hour, I got a text
from an RCR mechanic to say he'd be with us between an hour and an
hour and a half. He arrived two hours later, having come from
Manchester in very heavy rain and consequent bad traffic. At least it had stopped raining on us by the time he arrived.

It turned out the job
wasn't nearly as easy as I have envisaged, for it took the expert
three hours to replace the belt, and also the separate generator belt
which was showing signs of wear.

Drive belts!

He also spotted another small
problem which might have worsened without us knowing – a leak in
the pipe taking water to the calorifier. Unfortunately, he was unable
to replace it, but fixed it temporarily, and we'll have to replace it
when we get back to the marina. But we were hugely impressed by the
young man, Dean, who worked solidly for three hours to get a very
fiddly job done, with a smile, great patience and real determination. RCR is most certainly a service worth paying for.

Our evening meal was at
9:30, and we went to bed early.

The weather for Friday
was due to be heavy rain, so we decided to stay where we were. Dean
had left a number of greasy fingerprints around where he was working,
and I had water in the bilges that needed to be pumped out, so I got
those jobs done while Grace did some vacuum cleaning inside the boat.
We took a stroll around the site, too, which has a lot of
character.

Saturday's weather was
much better, and it was time for us to move on up Junction Lock, then
turning left onto the Coventry Canal.

Our rooftop garden's doing well at last!

The scenery was lovely,
the weather perfect for cruising, and we saw more boats out and about
today than on any other day since we started out four weeks ago.
There were no more locks on today's journey. The canal is narrow in
places, and somewhat winding.

We moored for lunch
above Cheadle's Bridge (no. 81), and at the end of the day below
Dunstall Bridge, just north of Tamworth.